


Unmarked Crates

by finereluctance



Series: Long Time Coming [2]
Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Nathan is always suspicious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-31 05:46:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1027967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finereluctance/pseuds/finereluctance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>pre-series; Nathan is stuck patrolling the docks after a report about smuggling comes in to the station.  Of course Duke is always a suspect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unmarked Crates

***

The docks in Haven are always busiest in the late morning as the fishing boats come back in with their haul and supply boats come through for their weekly deliveries. Usually by that time Nathan was down at the station or out on a call, but thanks to a tip from an anonymous source Nathan was stuck waiting around to make sure a certain shipment didn’t come in. He leaned against the fence and watched the ships unload, legs stretched out in front of him and his gaze fixed on the docks so he didn’t hear Duke approach him until he spoke.

“Now that’s a sight we don’t see down here every day,” Duke’s drawl teased more than anything, but it annoyed Nathan that particular morning.

“It isn’t every day we know that something is being smuggled through Haven.” Nathan studied him suspiciously, “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Duke held his hands up in mock innocence. “Whoa, I don’t know anything about it. I’m just picking up a few things.”

“Picking up from whom?” Nathan questioned.

“Cae Leigh Stanton. I’ve been waiting on a shipment from her for over a week.” Duke rarely offered names, which was strange in and of itself, but Stanton was the only one Nathan wouldn’t question and Duke knew that.

“Oh really,” the officer didn’t know whether to believe it or not. “You don’t usually do business with the Stantons.”

Duke shrugged, nonplussed by Nathan’s doubt. “Times are rough. Sometimes I have to work with the more legitimate business folk.”

“Hmm. You’ll let me know if you hear about anything coming through today.” It wasn’t a question, but Nathan dismissed him because he didn’t have time to talk in circles with Duke.

“Of course, Office Wournos,” Duke’s voice was filled with sarcasm but he continued on his way. He obviously didn’t want to spend more time with Nathan than Nathan did with him. Not that he would blame Duke for that, since he knew he was in a particularly bad mood after an argument with the Chief that ended with him stuck at the docks all morning.

***

Three hours later, Nathan was exactly where he started. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened all morning, and as the day moved into afternoon Nathan suspected he was probably getting sunburned from being out near the water for so long. Rather than continue standing around he finally wandered down towards the _Cape Rouge_ , though his destination was the _Fishfull Thinking_. According to the Harbor Master’s report he received for the morning, it was the only Stanton boat that had come into the harbor.

There was a frenzy of activity on the boat as crates were moved and arranged to be unloaded onto the waiting trucks, overseen by Cae Leigh Stanton from the top deck. Nathan lifted his hand to catch her attention and waved her down when she spotted him on the dock. A minute later she hopped down to join him, the clipboard under her arm dangerously close to falling in the water.

“Well if it isn’t Nathan Wournos. Haven’t seen you in ages.” Fifteen years since high school had hardly changed Cae Leigh, her dark hair braided back, and still only standing mid-chest to Nathan. “What can I do for ya?”

“If you have a few minutes to answer some questions, I’m just checking in on some things for the Chief.” Nathan accepted her hug as carefully as possibly so as not to hurt her since she was so small and he couldn’t judge how tightly he might hug her.

“Of course,” she smiled. “Don’t know how much I can tell you, though, since I only just got into town a couple weeks ago.”

“Can you confirm that Duke Crocker was picking something up from you today?” He did his best not to sound too suspicious, but it always seemed to bleed through when following up about Duke.

“Sure can. He put in an order a few weeks back, but we had some bad weather down south so it took us an extra week to get his product in. Had to cut the price down for him too, which won’t make daddy too happy but Crocker always pays so I don’t want to lose him as a client.” She shrugged. “I see you’re still keeping Duke out of trouble?” 

“No one can keep him out of trouble these days.” Nathan shook his head with a faint smile. “I have to ask, but you’ve turned in your shipping manifests to the Harbor Master already, right? Your family is usually good about that.”

She nodded. “Sure have, sent them over as soon as I verified all the crates. You can check the manifest if you want.”

“No, that’s fine. I just needed to ask. One more question, you haven’t seen anything weird going on around the docks this morning, have you?”

Cae Leigh laughed, “It’s Haven, Nathan. Is there anything normal that goes on around here?”

He laughed with her. “Good point.”

“But to answer your question, no, I’ve been too busy this morning to pay much attention to anyone else. I’ll give you a holler if I see anything weird by Haven standards, though.” 

“Thanks, Cae,” Nathan smiled. “It’s good to have you back in town.”

She waved him off, “I’ll be around, so don’t be a stranger. You and the Chief should come up to dinner Sunday.”

He nodded. “I’ll let him know we were invited.”

***

A walk around the docks to all the other boats that had come in that day didn’t turn up any more information than Cae Leigh had shared with him. Resigned to going back empty-handed and suffering the wrath of the Chief, Nathan headed back towards the truck. In the parking lot, Duke’s truck was parked next to Nathan’s, blocking him in as Duke loaded three crates into the back. 

“I see you got your shipment,” Nathan crossed his arms and leaned against the corner of Duke’s truck.

“Yup,” Duke loaded the second box with a sideways glance at Nathan. “It doesn’t look like you found what you came for.”

“No luck,” the officer sighed. “The Chief isn’t going to be happy.”

Duke sat on the bumper, waiting for him to say more, but Nathan was quiet. “Did he even tell you what you were supposed to be looking for?” 

Nathan knew the Chief was going to lay into him when he got back, so he lingered, stepping sideways to sit next to the other man. “The caller didn’t say, just left an anonymous tip that someone was shipping something illegal through the docks this morning. I checked in on all the boats that came through, but nothing turned up.”

“Let me see the manifest of boats that came in today,” Duke reached for the pages in Nathan’s hand, and since he had no better lead Nathan let him take them. He flipped through the pages, scanning the paperwork for something.

Nathan watched him from the corner of his eye. Duke wasn’t one to offer assistance; normally he’d have just shrugged Nathan off and gone about his day, so it made Nathan suspicious. He was only helpful if it benefited him somehow. Though, Nathan realized, Duke had acted weird around him over the past few months since his Trouble returned. It wasn’t so obvious he would have noticed it at first, not like Duke had gone out of his way to be friendly or even be a model citizen, but he wasn’t antagonizing Nathan like he used to.

“Here,” Duke’s voice interrupted his musing and the stack of pages was put in front of his face with Duke pointing at a specific line. “The _Janice Briggs_ is a fishing boat, but I heard Tommy took a run up into Canadian waters two days ago. If they’d been fishing like they said, they would’ve had a haul to unload today. Their nets were dry this morning, so that boat hasn’t seen a good haul of fish in at least a week.”

The detective frowned and took the manifests. He’s spoken to Tommy, but just got a shrug and the excuse of a bad day on the water. Nathan hadn’t thought to look at the nets. “You’re sure?”

“It’s the only one that makes sense on that list, unless Beatrice is hiding a boat from you, but I doubt that she would do that,” Duke shrugged and stood up to load the last crate into the truck. “Good luck finding what you’re looking for.”

“Hmm,” Nathan made a noncommittal sound as he stood up and moved away from the truck, headed towards the docks before he stopped and turned to look at Duke. It was too easy for Duke to just point at a ship and send Nathan on a wild goose chase. “What’s in the crates?”

Duke smirked. “It’s like you don’t trust me.” He turned his back to Nathan and leaned into the truck, back and shoulders straining as he popped the top off one of the crates and tossed something at Nathan.

He caught it out of reflex and looked down, confused. “Oranges?”

“Tangerines, Nate,” he laughed and closed the back of the truck. “Like I said, I’m not the one you’re looking for today.”

“Today,” Nathan repeated mostly to himself and headed down toward the _Janice Briggs_ to pay Tommy another visit, peeling and eating the tangerine as he went. It was easy to peel without crushing it, unlike oranges with his condition, and the taste was strong and sweet on his tongue. He made a mental note to find some at a later time, though he couldn’t recall ever seeing them in the market.

***

Later in the evening, after he’d returned to the station with two cases of illegally caught and imported Acadian redfish, Nathan found a basket of tangerines on his desk. No one could tell him where they’d come from, who dropped them off, or when they’d arrived, but Nathan just smiled.

_**Thanks,**_ he texted Duke. Nathan wasn’t surprised when he didn’t hear back, but he would be liar if he said he wasn’t disappointed.


End file.
